Hardware for the homelab
In previous projects i was always limited to the hardware or networking, so this time i decided to setup a network design first. From that point the setup can grow, but will also be fine if i keep it small.
Routing and switching
- Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X
- Ubiquiti Edgerouter Pro (19inch rackmount)`
- Ubiquiti Edge switch 24p
The hardware is running very stable for a couple of years now. I didn’t want to buy the Unify versions, because i mostly work with the CLI and it’s more fun. Second is that they don’t depend on a cloudkey to work. The Edgerouter Pro i will skip for now. I will configure it when i start with VLAN30.
Mini computers
I always liked the NUC versions due to the low powerconsumption and small form factor. I bought this hardware used for a decent price.
- Intel NUC7
- Intel NUC8 i3
HP DL380 Gen 8
This server weighs around 35 Kg and is an enterprise server 19inch rackmountable. I already have this one since 2018 and from time to time i use it for projects i want to explore. This time i will use it for the RPA Buddies project. The down side is the power consumption. It uses between 180 and 200 Watt continiously and will cost me around 50 Euro extra on power consumption every month, so i want to run this server as efficient as possible.
CPU
It has 2x Intel Xeon E5 2630 v2 CPU’s on board with 6 cores each. So in total i have 24 virtual cores to devide over the Virtual machines.
RAM
The server has 14 x 4 GB 2400 Mhz which has a total of 96 GB. I don’t need more because most of the time i will run out of diskspace instead of RAM.
Storage
I have a total of 10 SAS 10k storage disks.
- 1st datasore: 6x 300GB / raid 10 (stripe + mirror). 1 full disk fault tolerance.
- 2nd datastore: 2x 600GB / raid 1 (mirror). 1 full disk fault tolerance.
For both of the raid setups i have spare disks on the shelve in case of a disk failure.
Unfortunately i cannot use SSD disks, because i would have to buy a new disk backplate for that and I don’t find it usefull to buy that anymore. After this project this server will be sold and replaced with newer hardware.
Network design
The design i made is a first start and i don’t know if i will install less or more servers along the way. I also want to explore Azure cloud, so we’ll see where i end up.
